All is Well on the Homestead

We extended our weekend to include today (Monday) because Bob, from the Department of Agriculture, agreed to come out and do one more hive inspection with us. We knew we had lost one hive, but we were hopeful the remaining five would be disease free and doing well.

Bob confirmed we had healthy hives, and he also had suggestions on making our weak hive a little stronger. Sugar water. And lots of it. So we placed a gallon jug of sugar water on top of the weak hive and said a little prayer that it would help. The way the girls took to that stuff, I have a feeling they'll be rocking before too long at all!

I wrote about Bob's visit on The Bee Buzz. I also posted some pictures there. Check them out!

The girls are hanging in there and life is good on the homestead. Not much more we could hope for.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Cyle of Life

As I approach 50, kicking and screaming every inch of the way, I find myself reflecting on the cycle of life more than ever before. It seems that every situation I find myself in boils down to the "cycle of life". It's interesting to me. I don't necessarily find it depressing, I just find it very interesting.

We arrived at the homestead this weekend to face the fact that we have lost one of our beehives. No, it was not due to Colony Collapse Syndrome. It was due to the fact that we really refused to believe we were losing a hive. This is the hive that had a drone layer and the hive that we have never found a queen in. Still, we chose to believe we just missed the queen. There was a great deal of activity around the hive, afterall. But the truth is, the hive was dieing and while we had hoped it would last until Bob from the Department of Agriculture showed up with a new queen, the hive was struggling. And now it's dead. Very sad. We still have five hives, but it's pretty depressing to lose a hive when you know there is no one and nothing to blame but yourself. It was a cycle of life for this hive, but we could have prolonged it if we had interfered. And with bee hives, you really must interfere from time to time.

Well, Bob will be here Monday and we'll inspect the other five hives. I wrote a little about the bees and my wax rendering experience on The Bee Buzz and I put some pictures up of some honey robbers on The Bee Buzz Website.

And speaking of the cycle of life, I told you last week of how my trike had a header blowout and we patched it up with a beer can and a clothes hanger. Well, here's a picture of it:



Today we put new headers on her, and if the new headers weren't so darn pretty, I would be a lot more sad about getting rid of this beautiful patch job. But do not worry, the old headers will go to Tex. He can take anything and turn it into something to be proud to own.

Speaking of Tex, he and Charlotte are coming out tomorrow morning. They're bringing Bobo of course - I suspect Bobo is the real reason they are coming out. I think he gets to missing me and insists on it. I'll feed them breakfast, and then Tex and Bernie will level out the container so we can build a lean-to off of it. I imagine Charlotte, Bobo, and I will spend a lot of time inside. These man-jobs can be a little nerve wracking. Besides, I need to melt and filter the beeswax one more time. I think Bobo will enjoy that activity a lot more than watching the guys do man-stuff.

Bee Free,
Penny

How a Coat Hanger, a Beer, and Bikers Saved My Life

This weekend Bernie and I took a little road trip to Hillsville, Virginia. The Virginia Bikers Association (VABA) sponsored Thunder On the Mountain and this was certainly an event worth making an effort to attend. I must say, VABA put on one of the most organized and enjoyable biker events we've had the privilege of attending - and we've attended a few. It occurred at the Lakeview RV Resort, which is a completely awesome place to spend a weekend.

Hillsville is about 250 miles from our homestead, and with the weatherman forecasting a beautiful weekend, we decided to ride down. So I hooked up the trailer to the trike and we loaded it with a weekend full of necessities - which involved a couple changes of clothes, toothbrushes, and a cooler full of libations. Bernie hopped on his bike, I fired up the Grape Ape (that's what my trike likes to be called) and we headed off to Hillsville.

As I mentioned, it was a great time. We saw lots of old friends and made a few new ones (Bo and Beth - you rock!). VABA put on an awesomely organized Poker Run - well, actually TWO Poker Runs. One was a long run and one was a short run. I chose the long run because it went through a tunnel and I thought that sounded like it would sound cool to roar through a tunnel with 50 other bikers. It did not disappoint me. Neither did the Grape Ape. She ran like a scalded dog. I was pretty proud of her.

When we got back to the campsite I parked her in the bike show. She's rather shameless and enjoys the attention. When it came to our turn to ride down the "runway" for all to see, Bo came running over to tell me something was wrong with the exhaust. I turned around in time to see him smack the tailpipe with his hand and say "Oh no". I asked "Can I ride her?" and he replied "She ought to be OK to go up and down the runway once". I had no clue what was wrong, but I knew my number was up to show off the trike, so I turned my attention to ground in front of me and took off. When we returned to our spot I hopped off and ran to the back of the trike, just in time to see the header come loose and droop to the ground. It was barely hanging on. All I could think of was "Lovely. I'm 250 miles from home and there ain't no way the Grape Ape is getting me there in this condition."

Did I mention we were at a biker event? Bikers are some of the most resourceful people you will ever meet. Within moments Bo assessed the situation and announced we needed some kind of wire or something to hold the header up off the ground and a clamp to try and close the huge crack in the tailpipe. Another biker ran off to get a coat hanger. My buddy Boil thought he could find a clamp. By the time Bernie ran down to check everything out, we had a plan. Bo took charge and wired the header up with the coat hanger. Boil and another biker donated a couple of clamps. But we still had a fairly large crack in the tailpipe and it was clear we needed something to cover it or I would be sucking air all the way home. Beth ran over to the trash can and came back with a beer can, which Bo cut the ends off of and then sliced down the middle to make a nice piece of medal that covered the crack just beautifully. Between the beer can, clamps, and some wire, we managed to get the crack covered pretty well. Well enough to get me all the way home anyway, even if we did sputter and pop when downshifting.

Homesteading is all about self reliance and self sufficiency. Not all bikers are homesteaders, but certainly as a group bikers are self reliant and self sufficient - or at the very least extremely clever.

I've always known that beer is a wonderful thing. And I've always been a little fond of the great service coat hangers have provided me. But tonight I am especially grateful for the both of them and for my biker family. While I really enjoyed Hillsville, I wasn't looking forward to spending the rest of my life there. I am eternally indebted to a coat hanger, a beer, and a bunch of bikers. And Bo and Beth - I owe y'all one.

Bee Free,
Penny

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's....... A Bear!!!!

Well, after finding bear poop in the yard many times and seeing, first hand, the destruction they can cause to bird feeders, I guess it shouldn't be so surprising that we actually saw a bear in the yard this weekend.

But it was surprising. At least it was to me. My niece and great-niece came up for a visit and we were enjoying Saturday afternoon just visiting in the living room. Bernie was out greasing his backhoe and all felt very calm on the homestead. I glanced out the living room window just in time to see a big black butt walking past the window. My first thought was "Now what is that huge dog doing in this yard?" followed immediately by the thought "Wow - that's the biggest black dog I've ever seen" followed immediately by me screaming "Bear! There's a bear!". The three of us jumped to our feet. My niece ran to get her camera. My great niece ran to the window to get a better look. I ran to the front door and screamed "Bernie! Bear! Bernie! Bear!" frantically waving for him to get inside and look.

We all gathered at the window and I pointed and said "There he is - wait - where is he?" My eight year old great-niece looked at me and said "When you screamed for Bernie he took off running. That way. He ran fast and now he's gone." Doh!

After we all calmed down Bernie and I realized that the direction he was traveling was straight for the apiary. That worried us a bit. But we checked on the bees several times over the weekend and they were just fine. Probably the bear was just thirsty and headed for the creek for some water. I imagine his ears are still ringing from my shrill screaming to get Bernie inside.

Other than that the weekend was relatively calm. I did manage to render wax and I wrote about it on The Bee Buzz. I'll try to get pictures up of the whole process in the next week or so. My niece got a picture of the little fawns looking for food in the backyard and she seemed pretty happy about that. My great-niece seemed more interested in the rabbits that ran about when I took her for rides in the Trail Blazer.

All in all, we had a great weekend on the homestead. Great company with lots of laughs and plenty of hugs. And we saw a bear! I really hope he doesn't make visiting us a habit. He could ask his deer friends about the result of that. Bear season is at a good time of year......

Bee Free,
Penny

Dealing With Miss Penny 101: The Proper Way to React to a Home-made Gift

As I mentioned in my last post, I made some beeswax lip balm last weekend. I'll get some pictures up on the website soon. It turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. In fact, of the three people I've given some to so far, two of them reacted quite positively. One even suggested I could get rich selling it. Needless to say, THAT person will be receiving future home made gifts from me. Probably she'll be the proud recipient of some home-made soap, but that little jewel isn't quite cured enough to be a gift yet.

We've established how much I enjoy the whole obligatory gift giving notion, but there are times when I do feel obligated to give a gift - and even times when the spirit just moves me to do so. And because of this, I feel it only fair that I should tell you how I expect you will react when you are the blessed soul that recieves a home-made gift from me.

Gushing is completely acceptable. Proclaiming me The Queen of All Things Home-Made is not only acceptable, but somewhat expected. Doing these simple little things will insure that: 1) I will not hate you for all eternity and 2) you may well be the proud recipient of another slice of heaven made by my own hands.

The truth is, as much as I enjoy making home-made gifts, I do NOT enjoy giving to people who do not appreciate them. In all honesty, that kind of pisses me off. So, lie if you must - but certainly gush over your gift. You will not only receive future home-made gifts from me, but you will insure I will actually speak to you when we cross paths in the future.

You may think I am a little sensitive on this subject. You may be right. But I'm the one making this crap and I'm the one giving it away, so I get to make the rules. So gush away or be dropped from my gift list. And have a nice day.

Bee Free,
Penny

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Well, Sort of

For some reason we saw more wild animals this weekend on the homestead than we ever have before. We saw a doe with two precious little fawns, a fox, two coyotes, a skunk, and several rabbits. As remote as our homestead is, it really is fairly unusual to see many animals. The animals there are still wild and not used to a lot of human noise or motion. Unlike the animals in town that graze next to the highways or the skunks that visit our yard, any sound or slight movement will send them tearing into the woods on the homestead. I must say, although I enjoyed watching them, with each I saw I thought of either food on our table, or predator to our chickens and goats when we move out there permanently.

When we got to the homestead Friday, we immediately began rendering some of the beeswax we've collected. As I wrote about on The Bee Buzz, this was a little more involved than I had anticipated. I did manage to get enough wax rendered to make about 48 little tins of beeswax lip balm. I'll have to work on getting the rest of it rendered in the next few weeks.

The soap is curing quite nicely and changing to a creamy white color. In three or four more weeks or so I should be able to try it out. If it passes approval, I'll have gifts for my Christmas victims.

Other than that, Bernie and I mowed the lawns and took care of a few things on the homestead. As a result of me hitting a huge stump with the riding mower, we had to spend a little time on Saturday fixing one of the blades on the mowing deck. I hit it good enough to bend the frame it's attached to. But Bernie managed to pound it back into shape and it's running right along again.

Next weekend my neice is visiting us on the homestead and she's bringing along the only kid she's got that isn't staying at my parent's for the summer. We're really looking forward to that. Two of my most favorite people!

I'll be posting the lip balm recipe on The Bee Buzz website soon, so be sure to check it out!

Bee Free!
Penny

Happy Independence Day!

Before I even start, I will preference this by saying this may seem an unusual post for a blog about basic living, but in reality it is very appropriate. Living "free" is only possible in a land where the government allows that to be so. I suppose in Utopia, no one would have the right to tell you how you can live, but we don't live in Utopia - and as much as I hate to admit it, government is a necessity for us all to live in some semblance of harmony. I don't think any of us would argue about that - the argument would be about how much of a role the government is allowed to play.

So today is the day we celebrate our independence from, by all accounts, an oppresive government. It seemed appropriate that today Bernie and I would ride our bikes in a parade to support a delegate who works tirelessly to keep our current state government from becoming any more oppresive than it already is. Delegate Lingamfelter stands on the side of freedom - and we stand on the side of Delegate Lingamfelter. He is a patriot and we were proud to show our support by riding in a parade for him.

You can view some of the pictures on the Virginia Freedom Riders website.

Regardless of how you celebrated Independence Day, I hope it was safe and meaningful. Enjoy your family, enjoy your freedom - and don't forget to thank those who fought and fight to insure you can do so.

Be Free,
Penny

Rubba-Dub-Dub

We are having a great weekend on the homestead. It was raining when we arrived, which was a welcome respite from the dry weather we've been having. The grass is coming in quite nicely now.

This morning we worked on my trike and corrected a backfire issue is was having by replacing the #1 cylinder spark plug and wire. We tuned her up and she's running like a top now. Which is really good - because we're riding in support of Delegate Lingamfelter this week for the Dale City 4th of July parade.

Afterwards, I made a batch of home made soap. I've been reading up on this, and it's something that seemed a little intimidating, but I really wanted to do. If things were to get really bad, I'd like to think I could at least continue with basic hygiene. The ingredients are pretty easy to come by, with the possible exception of lye - and I found a recipe for making my own lye, if it comes down to that. At any rate, I spent an hour or so making soap, and I am pretty excited to see how it turn out. Check it out!

This afternoon we cooked out and grilled some great burgers and bratwurst. Then we walked down to check out the bees. On the way down we stopped by one of the little creeks and saw several of the girls getting a little drink of water. They were darn cute standing on the rocks so their feet didn't get wet. Wish I'd had my camera. They seem to be doing pretty well. Lots of activity around every hive. We'll get Bob W. from the Dept. of Agriculture to come out again in a couple of weeks so we can do another thorough hive inspection.

We also noticed on our walk to the hives that we have raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries ripening up. I had a few for dessert as we walked. Hopefully I'll be able to beat the birds and bears to them in the next couple of weeks and collect enough for a pie - or at the very least for a nice topping on my pancakes!

Oh - and for those of you who have asked, I do believe I reign triumphant over the mice! I haven't seen a sign of them in the house for several weeks now. Of course it helped that daddy helped me search out every conceivable point of entry for them while he was here and fill it with that expanding foam. And as a side note, I would mention that when you read "expanding" on that foam, it means EXPANDING. That stuff looks alien about 30 minutes after you spray it - and it ain't budging once it's in place. I speak from experience.

Bee Free,
Penny

I Told You I'm a Good Wife

As we have well established in the past, I am a pretty good wife. I not only accepted that my husband wanted bees, I've learned to love them and become totally absorbed in them. I throw him a Super Bowl Party every year. And I not only hunt, fish, and ride motorcycles, I also willingly participate in pretty much every cock-a-mamie scheme he comes up with. Take tonight, for example.

My wonderful husband walks in an announces "I'm going to take down that branch that hangs over the driveway that's been bothering you." I looked up at him. "Well, that's great. Need my help?" - never expecting in a million years that he would actually say yes. He pulled up his pants, puffed out his chest and said "I thought I'd drive the back hoe down there and lift you up in the bucket. You'll be able to cut it down a lot easier that way." What the...... "Lift ME up??? I thought you said YOU were going to take down that branch????" He looked at me ever so tenderly and said "I figured it would be a lot safer if I lift YOU in the back hoe than if you lift me." He had a point. I don't know how to operate that back hoe very well yet. I mean I could do it, but I couldn't insure he'd be heading up or down in the bucket right at first. I am struggling with what is up and what is down with that bucket right now.

It was getting dark, so I reluctantly agreed. We headed down and Bernie positioned the backhoe exactly where it needed to be:



He hoisted me up and I snapped a picture along the way:



The branch hung over the road - which seemed a lot further up than I remembered it:



I thought Bernie looked a lot more smug than he should have at this point:



I swear I sawed on that stupid branch half the night:



And then I got it! It fell to the ground!



Bernie lowered the bucket and rode me back up to the house:



If this is not proof of what a good wife I am, I don't know what is. That Bernie is one lucky man. And I never cease to remind him of it.

Bee free!
Penny

You Wascally Wabbit

We are overrun with rabbits. I'm sure I've never seen as many rabbits as I have this year. We can't walk outside without seeing a rabbit or two hop through the yard.

When we got to the homestead tonight, we scattered several rabbits as we pulled into the driveway. A little while later we went down to take care of a few things and check on the bees, and while we were there a rabbit hopped out of the woods and sat very close to where we were standing. He didn't look even slightly worried. That really surprised me. Did he have no clue what-so-ever where he lands on the food chain? Apparently not. Does this guy look even a little concerned to you?



I didn't think so.

Anyone have a good rabbit recipe to share?

Bee free, Penny

Dear John

I hinted at this in my last post, but I am at a particularly low point right now. I won't go into details, but I'm sure you realize that the fact that we can not sell our home in town to homestead full time is at the top of my list of downers.

But I have a little secret upper. I have my Dear John. John is a fellow who happened up on the Back to Basic Living website and started emailing me. My dear John has become a good friend to me, even though we've never met. He has a homestead of his own that he dreams of eventually living on. He spends time there and he sends me pictures and updates on a regular basis. John also sends me advice and encouragement. He's a pretty smart fellow and he's studied up on self sufficiency and self reliance - and he's not shy about sharing it.

John makes me smile with his stories of being a yankee in the deep south. I love the story of a neighbor that repositioned a civil war cannon to point at John's home when he first moved in. John delivered several bushels of oranges from his personal orange grove before his neighbor finally pointed the cannon away from John's home.

John also shares little things - like using the solar powered outside lights to work as nightlights in your home. He's sent me plans on switching over to solar power and shared how to make certain you can get water from a well. He's commiserated on mice infestations and taken an interest in honey bees. He's even sent riddles for Bernie to answer. All in all, my Dear John has been a good friend - knowing when to agree that life sucks, and knowing when to encourage me to move on.

And so I would like to share my Dear John letter:

Dear John,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for being a friend, to thank you for taking the time to entertain me, encourage me, and offer advice. I thank you for visiting my website and offering me your friendship. I wish you only the best with your homestead - and I sure hope you can convince your wife of it's virtues. Take care my friend. And know that I appreciate you.

Bee Free,
Penny

Confessions of an Overwhelmed Part Time Homesteader

As Charlotte pointed out to me, it's been a while since I posted. I really do apologize for that. We've been working around the homestead, worrying about the bees, and trying to sell our home in town. Have you ever felt overwhelmed with life to the point of being unable to do anything at all? I have been pretty much at that particular point - and it left me with what I suppose is "writer's block". I'm back on track now though, and ready to write yet another rambling blog full of my stream of consiousness.

The bees have given us quite a bit of stress lately - we were seriously questioning the health of two of the six hives. I contacted Bob W. from the Department of Agriculture and he agreed to come on out and help us examine each of our hives. Bob W. is saint - full of compassion, understanding, and a great deal of knowledge about bees. We had a wonderful visit with him, and while I wouldn't say he gave us the best news in the world about our hives, he did explain an awful lot of things to us and promised to come out again in a month to take another look and see how the girls are doing. I wrote about his visit on The Bee Buzz Blog and posted some pictures on the website.

My parents came up from Georgia for a week and we all stayed out on the homestead. It was a great time and I can't believe how quickly the time flew by. We accomplished a great deal during their visit. Bernie and Daddy knocked down the old Wild Cherry Tree that was threatening to fall on the house. They also greased Bernie's backhoe and got it in good working order. Daddy and I spent a great deal of time removing all those strips in the walls of the mobile home and then mudding them. We got just about half of it finished before he left and I'm ready to prime it and then paint the walls. I'll put up some pics when I do that so y'all can see the difference.

We still haven't sold our home in town and it's getting down right depressing. We're trying not to let it get us down, but after spending a week on the homestead it's getting harder and harder to leave. We spent our 20 year wedding anniversary out there and Bernie's birthday. It was really nice. I almost cried when we had to leave.

On the upside, we saw turkeys in the yard this week! Man, are they big! We haven't seen signs of them in a while, so laying eyes on them was a pleasant surprise. I'm hoping to see one of them on the table for the Thanksgiving meal this year.

That's it for now. I'll try to be better about keeping in touch.

Bee Free,
Penny

Let it Be Known. I Officially Declare War on All Mice.

As we headed out to the homestead on Friday night I had a song in my heart. We were going to spend a long weekend at my favorite place on the face of the earth! We had planned to do hive inspections of our six hives and we had our good friends, Tex and Charlotte, planning to come out to spend all day Sunday with us. How could it get any better? I was really happy and really excited.

But as we pulled into the drive way we noticed that one of the hives in the apiary had globs of bees all over the front of it. And only one of the hives - our most active hive. Bees will glob together on the outside of a hive when it is particularly hot weather - but it wasn't particularly hot weather at that time. We instinctively knew something was not right, and after doing a little checking we absolutely knew we had a little problem. You can read about it on The Bee Buzz Blog and see pictures of us opening the hives on The Bee Buzz Website.

At any rate, we finally made it up to the house and the first thing I did was check the mouse traps. Sure enough we had one. I couldn't help but wonder if this wasn't the same little mouse with attitude that I had met last weekend. No telling I guess. I felt a little bad but then I remembered the conversation that little mouse and I had in kitchen. I told him point blank that I was baiting with peanut butter the next week and I warned him fair and square about coming back inside. So if he screwed up and came back inside, well I guess he picked the wrong kitchen to mess around in this time.

Saturday morning we woke up early to get the mowing out of the way. I was using the push mower in front of the house and Bernie was using the riding mower at the front of the property. After a while I looked up and he was stopped - and had his upper body shoved under the hood of the riding mower. I walked up just as he was pulling dead mice and bedding out of the carburetor. Our riding mower was dead - and we learned it would cost us about $600 to repair the mouse damage!

All weekend I continued to find signs of mice. One scurried into the garage as I came around the corner. I discovered the towels in the guest bathroom were all chewed up and pooped on by mice. I decided enough is enough. I have tried to be nice. I have tried to warn them. It would be obvious to the most casual observer that I am being ignored. I've had enough. I declare war on all mice on the face of the planet. Bring it on baby - I'm ready for you!

I have put poisoning in every nook and cranny inside and outside of our home and garage. I HATE using poison. But I am at my wits end. I will not be conquered by a bunch of small, obnoxiously obnoxious rodents. With the aid of mouse traps, peanut butter, and Di-Con, I intend to show those little bastards who is boss.

Lord, please don't let them win.

Bee Free, Penny

There's a Mouse in the House!

Each time we arrive at the homestead and enter the house, I immediately check the mouse traps we set around after finding evidence of a few mice during the winter. This weekend was no different and as I checked each trap I was relieved to find they were undisturbed. Each morning when I awaken at the homestead, I check the traps again.

Saturday morning I stumbled out of bed and headed for the coffee pot and out of habit glanced beside the stove and noticed two traps were tripped - and they were completely empty. Not good. Not good at all. I poured my coffee and stumbled to my recliner next to Bernie and announced "Something tripped those mouse traps - but there weren't any mice in them." He said "I think I heard a mouse this morning". I really wasn't sure he was serious, but he convinced me that in the still of the morning he heard something scurrying through our bedroom. As we were sitting there discussing it, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. A mouse! And he was sitting about three feet away from me just staring at me - daring me to come closer.

Now, I have a soft spot for mice. When I was about eight years old my cousin, Andy, gave me a little gray mouse in a cage. I named him Popo and I really loved that little mouse. As an adult I've learned the destruction mice cause in a home and I've set out to kill them with traps on many occasions. But I never had one look me in the eyes while I was thinking of killing him! This was going to be a tough one.

Normally Bernie is the Mouse Slayer, but this time I felt it was something personal. That little mouse just thumbed his nose at me! I jumped up from my chair and the mouse scurried into the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen and found him sitting on the rug beneath the sink. I walked up within a foot of him and he just sat there staring at me. I slowly reached over and grabbed a dish towel. The mouse just continued starting at me. I took the towel and quickly threw it to the ground with the intent of it landing on the mouse and trapping him long enough for me to catch him. The mouse zipped away. Bernie yelled "Grab a bucket!" I walked over and grabbed the bucket and looked around and said "I don't see the mouse". Bernie said "There he is! He's running to the living room." I hurried over to the living room and saw no sign of a mouse. I asked Bernie "Where is he?". He said "He's crawling up the curtain." Ewwww! I ran over to the curtain and put the bucket underneath the mouse. He fell into the bucket!

I quickly handed the bucket to Bernie and he walked outside to the wood line and released the mouse. As Bernie started walking toward the house he looked behind him and the mouse was following! He walked back toward the mouse and finally the little guy took off into the woods.

That little mouse had some personality. I would love to invite that little mouse to live in our home. But mice don't potty train easily and they like make little nests out of stuff that I am particularly fond of. I wish the best to our little visitor. And I sure hope he doesn't come back to visit. I've baited the traps with peanut butter - and I've got a feeling he couldn't resist that.

The homestead is a luscious green right now. We finally have some grass growing! We still need to get it a little thicker, but damn if it doesn't look nice! Check it out!

I got a new camera and it takes some awesome pictures. I put some pictures on the website of flowers and insects that I took on the homestead.

I also got several pictures of our bees and wrote a blog entry on them.

That's it for now. Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend and we'll have three whole days on the homestead! Can't wait - and I'll be sure to post some pictures.

Bee Free,
Penny

Scat. Lots of Scat.

We spent today mowing. We have a few acres to mow and between that and weed wacking, it's pretty much a full day of work. Bernie weed wacked around the apiary and noticed two things - lots of bees returning to the hive with pollen and lots of scat around two of the hives. Our weakest two hives to be exact. I put pictures on The Bee Buzz of the girls weighted down with pollen and of the scat. The scat is most certainly skunk scat. Skunks love to eat bees. I wrote a little about that on The Bee Buzz Blog. We plan to add some electric wire down low tomorrow that will keep the skunks out.

As we were walking in the front yard, picking up tree limbs and rocks before we mowed, we noticed some bear scat - in two different areas. Between the bears and the skunks I do worry about our bees. I am hoping the electric fence will detract both of them.

Other than mowing and worrying about scat, the weekend has been rather calm so far. We bought a new battery for Bernie's bike and installed it after we mowed. It started raining shortly after noon and is supposed to rain through the night. Thank goodness we have the garage now or we wouldn't have been able to work on his bike at all. Even though it's the beginning of May, we have a fire in the fireplace. I'm just certain summer is only around the corner

All in all, our homestead is doing well. Predators are a fact of life in the country and we will deal with them the best we can. In the meantime our bees are happy and bringing in lots of bounty! I can only hope that equates to lots of honey in the fall.

Bee Free,
Penny

April Showers Bring......

Grass. Lots of tall grass. Which is a good thing, because this homestead needs some more grass. We've been tracking in mud for a year and after over-seeding in the fall and early spring, we finally have some grass. And that means we need to mow and weed eat. Which is what we did today.

We were supposed to do bee hive inspections, but since it didn't get above 60 degrees, we had to delay that. Even though it was cool, the bees were really very active. It was awesome to watch them. I wrote about it on The Bee Buzz blog, and put pictures up on the website.

We walked around the property and were happy to find a great number of dogwood and redbud trees in bloom. The wild cherry trees have been blooming for a couple of weeks - along with a couple of apple trees. There were a few other trees blooming that I don't recognize. Soon we'll be seeing some blue berries and black berries. I hope I can get to them before the bears and birds eat all of them.

Bee Free,
Penny

Set Those Puppies Free!

Well, today was another gorgeous day and we got up early to go down to the apiary and remove the hive reducers so the bees could freely enter and exit the hives. I wish you could have seen how happy they were! I put some pictures up on The Bee Buzz website.

Afterwards we finally had time to walk around the property and could not believe the damage that storm caused. There were more uprooted and fallen trees than I could count. It was pretty depressing. We were really depressed to find that a tree that housed a tree stand was uprooted. It was one of the nicer stands and a favorite of our friend, Eddie. He claimed that stand as his and anytime he hunts our property, he goes to that stand. Bernie named it "Eddie's Last Stand". We haven't told him it's gone yet. We just dread it. You can check out some pictures of it and other damage on the Back To Basic Living website.

Next weekend we have a list of about a thousand things to do on the homestead. We'll prioritize them this week and figure out what we can accomplish. I'll be sure to put up pictures and write about what ever we decide to do.

Bee Free,
Penny

The Calm After the Storm

Last weekend we left the homestead in the middle of what felt like a monsoon. We got several inches of rain from Saturday through Sunday. Then on Monday the wind started. It howled for 2 days. The entire North East got hit with this storm and it was brutal.

We worried about the homestead all week. We have big, tall trees and we knew the ground was completely saturated before the winds started. That makes the ideal situation for trees to be uprooted. And uprooted big, tall trees can really cause a lot of damage.

Sure enough when we arrived Friday night, we found two trees down in the driveway and two trees hanging over the driveway, held up because they were entagled in other trees. All of them were uprooted. I put some pictures up on the website. We walked up to the house, got the chainsaw, and cleared the driveway of the two that had fallen. When we got up to the house we noticed 3 more trees that were down in the front yard, and several in the back. This morning we saw there were actually 4 trees down in the front yard. The good news is there was no damage to the house or garage. Well, I guess there was a little damage - the storm door got blown open and beat itself to death. We had to remove that. But we are so very thankful no trees fell on the house.

Needless to say, we spent today sawing up trees and removing the logs and branches. Bernie used his backhoe on the two that were looming over the driveway. He knocked them down pretty easily with the bucket and the boom. We spent about 6 hours clearing out all the trees and then decided to move all the shredder, splitter, boat, lawn tractor, motorcycles, motorcycle trailer, and ATVs into the new garage.

After a full day of working outside, we came inside and I cooked a nice meal of fried deer steak, rice, gravy, aspargus, and biscuits. Bernie helped me clean up the kitchen afterwards and we are both officially plum tuckered.

I am very proud to report the bees made it through the nasty weather just fine. Today it was near 80 degrees, and the girls were just a blur of activity. Tomorrow morning we'll go down and remove the hive reducers. I think (read hope) we are finished with the really cold weather now, and the girls are just fighting to get in and out of the entrances. I am really very proud of them. They are tough little cookies.

Bee Free,
Penny

All Washed Up

It was a rainy weekend at the homestead. It was cloudy and misty when we got up Saturday, and it started raining before noon. It rained all day and all night - and was still raining when we left. The two creeks that our driveway passes over were full, and I'm fairly certain they will likely cover the road before this is all said and done. We haven't had this much rain in quite a while. Hopefully not all of the grass seed we've spread around will wash into the woods. It would be nice if at least a little stayed in the yard and sprouted.

Because of the weather, we didn't get out on the property much and spent the time relaxing a little and keeping a nice fire stoked. I did want to mention that after I checked the bees last weekend and started walking back up the driveway toward the house, a red fox pranced right across the road in front of me. He never even gave me a glance. He sure was pretty, and I couldn't help but hope he doesn't end up in our chicken coop once we get settled out there.

The bees are fine. Friday evening when we arrived they were buzzing around the outside of the hives. They're safely snuggled up in the hives trying to stay warm and dry today.

Bee Free,
Penny

Hot or Cold? Make up My Mind Already!

I forgot to post last weekend! Which is really surprising to me, because we had a busy weekend on the homestead - and we had GREAT weather. Last weekend it was in the 80s! This weekend it's in the 30s. We've been down to the low 20s at night. It just doesn't seem right.

Last weekend we had an enclosed carport installed. We are convinced we are going to quickly sell our home in town and be caught totally unprepared to move all that crap out to the homestead in a timely manner. The sea container we got to hold all the furniture while we decide what to do with it, is currently completely filled with motorcycles, ATVs, etc. So we decided to purchase this carport and get it quickly errected so we can clear out the sea container. I put a picture of it up on the website. Certainly we will be building additional buildings, but this is something that will help us get everything from town out here as quickly as possible.

We spent last Saturday chipping wood. You may recall from past pictures that we had a HUGE pile of trees, branches, etc. piled up by the sawmill. Most of these were small scrub pines that were left there when the drain field was cleared for the Sewage Treatment Plant we had to get. It was not only an eyesore, but a great spot for snakes and wild life to make a happy little home. So we spent the day trying to get rid of most of that pile. And we did a darn good job of it.

As I said earlier, this weekend has been pretty cold for this time of year. We were around 30 degrees at 1PM when I went down to check on the apiary. The girls are fine. They stayed home today and are cleaning house. I put a picture up on The Bee Buzz website and I wrote a little about them on The Bee Buzz blog.

A couple of weeks ago we got a Petition of Qualified Voters from Senator Obenshain's office. This is a form that all candidates are required to have filled out with signatures from within the district that signify there are enough people that think you should be allowed to run for a particular office. I don't know the total amount of signatures required, but the petition we got had room for 25 signatures. Even though Senator Obenshain has been in office for 4 years, he still needs those signatures, so we agreed to take the form around and collect 25 signatures for him. The form had to be returned by last Wednesday, so being the rediculously over optomistic person I am, I decided to wait until the last minute to get this finished. I mean, how difficult could this be right? Senator Obenshain has been in office for 4 years and he's a pretty darn easy guy to like. He's done pretty well for this district and he's a liberty loving man, so getting 25 signatures should be pretty darn easy. Well, I was wrong. I mean dead wrong. I can not believe how many people have absolutely no clue who their representatives are. Here is an example of an actual conversation that pretty much epitomizes the entire experience:

"Hi, I'm collecting signatures so that Senator Obenshain can run for office again in this next election."

"Obenstein? I never heard of no Obenstein."

"It's Obenshain. He's been our Senator for the past 4 years."

"Is he from around here?"

"He's Senator of THIS district."

"I never heard of Obenstein."

"It's Obenshain."

"I don't like politics. I don't want to sign that."

"OK. Well, thank you for your involvement."

I even tried local businesses thinking that certainly these are people who would be on top of things. WRONG! Most were not even registered to vote.

I did manage to collect the 25 signatures. If I had gone to the biker community in the area, I would have had no problem. But I was trying to do it after work when I was tired and had little time. I thought it would be easier to pound the local streets than try to gather everyone up during good riding weather. I could not have been more mistaken. What is wrong with people today? Most are quick to complain that things in this country are going to hell in a hand basket, but do these same people vote? Are they involved in letting their representatives know what's important to them? Apparently not.

Ok enough of all that. We're here at the homestead and even though it's cold, it's really nice to be sitting in front of a crackling fire and writing in this blog.

The bees are doing fine. We're doing fine. And we're going to sell our home soon. Life is pretty darn good.

Bee Free,
Penny